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A California woman had no idea that Tinder would be the answer to her problems until her new boyfriend made a generous donation.

According to Barcroft, Cheyenne HanLee, 22, and her boyfriend Gavin Geragawa began dating after he super-starred her on Tinder about two years ago.

The two had been together only seven months when HanLee collapsed while out with some friends.

She’d been previously diagnosed with kidney failure but had been in denial up until then. Doctors told her that her kidney was functioning at two percent.

HanLee said:

“When I first got Tinder, I didn’t believe that I was sick because my illness is invisible. No one else, including myself, could see that I was sick but I could feel it.”

According to Daily Mail, HanLee is happy that she went to the hospital when she did or she may not have been alive to tell the story. After her diagnosis, HanLee began kidney dialysis before switching to peritoneal dialysis. During this process, the patient hooks him or herself to a machine for ten hours to remove toxins from the body.

She said:

“I was really depressed and didn’t do anything every single day. Haemodialysis made me so exhausted, I wouldn’t be able to function afterwards.

After I started peritoneal dialysis, I felt a little better and sought out a support group, learning about kidney disease has helped me a lot.”

Doctors told HanLee that she would need a transplant as soon as possible. Her boyfriend decided to do something.

Geragawa said:

“I already knew I wanted to get tested at that point, but I couldn’t really do anything for a while because there’s a process to get on the transplant list.”

Once he was finally tested, he discovered that his Tinder match was also a kidney match.

Despite her doubts, HanLee knew no other option to save her life than to accept her boyfriend’s donation.

So on October 24, 2018, the couple underwent surgery at Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego. The kidney transplant was a success.

Geragawa said:

“When people ask the question of why I’m doing this, I tell them it’s not a question of why, but rather, how can I not?

I don’t think I’m special, I think anybody in my position would do the same thing.”

However, HanLee disagrees. She believes her boyfriend is “special” and because of him, she has not been on dialysis in over 20 days.

She said:

“I never thought I would have found Gavin through this dating app, and now we are here and he’s giving me his kidney – it’s kind of crazy.”

Geragawa says he didn’t do it for their relationship and that if the relationship were to have ended soon after, he wouldn’t regret his decision. He is more concerned that his match lives “a good and healthy life.” He believes that no one her age should have to suffer in the way HanLee has.

HanLee, to say the least, is extremely grateful.

She said:

“I can’t put into words how grateful I am to him. It’s a big life change, I went from being tired doing laundry to how I am now – it’s not normal, but it’s as normal as I’ll get.”

HanLee shared several posts on Instagram regarding her surgery the day before Thanksgiving to have her dialysis catheter removed.

Going in for surgery today! I’m having both my stent and my peritoneal dialysis catheter removed. • How do i feel? Honestly not too much as of now. I’ve grown so used to having this catheter as a part of my body I rarely had anger towards having it there. It’ll be nice though to have my whole stomach back again. I always did feel like there was a part of me I had to leave alone. I feel another step closer to having my body back. I’ll check back in when I’m out of surgery!

Most recently, HanLee shared that her boyfriend has remained by her side the entire time and they’ve been recovering and spending lots of time together. She captioned a photo on Instagram, expressing how her illness had affected her relationship.

Gavin has been by my side the whole time and I’m so grateful. We’ve been resting and enjoying quality time together. I’ve been helping cook and clean which is something I couldn’t do prior to transplant. We also have been taking daily walks. This time that we’ve had together has been so precious. It’s given us the opportunity to really really appreciate each other. • I always felt like my chronic illness held me back from showing my love to Gavin because I was always too tired to even take care of myself, but he’s shown me that I’m more than enough? And everyone shows love and accepts it in different ways, so don’t make my mistake and question yourself if everything is going smoothly. I felt guilty for a long time because our whole relationship was me in kidney failure and then on dialysis. It tested us in many ways and the beginning was hard. But I’m just SO happy at where we are now. It truly gets better.

HanLee uses her Instagram to share her journey and spread awareness about kidney disease.